I wanted to share a portion of a manuscript I’m shopping. It seems appropriate to talk about my slaying dragons metaphor given yesterday’s discussion of the field and the fact that tonight on GoT (spoiler) there was an attempt at killing a dragon.
I think this piece is going to go somewhere, eventually. I like this section. So today, you get to see my philosophy on killing dragons:
I grew up telling stories and consuming stories, playing my way to myriad different realities. I’ve been a super hero, a musician, an undead zombie knight with a frozen sword, a frail elf who thinks he’s a bull king, I’ve been a female thief, a talking cat, a professional wrestler, a crazed linebacker. I’ve been a vampire, and a lizard man, and a thing called an Azmeon that had golden skin and angel’s wings. I’ve played at things close to and far from home. I know the value of play, of trying to see the world through different eyes. I don’t think this makes me special; most of us, and certainly most of us who go on to study in fields related to writing and game design, have active imaginations that take us through various forms of role-playing in our lives. But what I would suggest is that there is a noted value in play. Being able to shift positions, to change styles, to see in other ways.
One of the truths a gamer knows is that there’s more than one way to kill the dragon. The dragon, you understand, exists only to die or to kill you. These are the two viable ends. The dragon’s death is near inevitability, as is your death. But the dragon doesn’t die in only one way, nor will you, sword in hand, as you launch into the fray. The important part of the game isn’t how it’s going to end. We already know. Most of the time the dragon is going to kill you. Then, one day, you’re going to kill the dragon. And after that, you’ll be able to do it again, but don’t worry about resting on your laurels, because there’s a stronger, different dragon that will offer you greater status when you kill him or her. There’s always another dragon.
The problem with most dragons is that they’re at least partly imaginary and highly elusive. Like white elephants, they’re invisible or metaphorical, clearly menacing and often evil. It’s easy to talk about killing a dragon, due in large part to that inevitability I just mentioned. Dragons are there to die, or like Puff the Magic Dragon to live forever, unlike the little boys who hunt them. It’s much harder to grab a sword and leap into the face of a historical genocide, to battle with relocation and cultural appropriation, to stare down a majority that doesn’t even realize it’s invoking the evils of a past.
The reason I push this argument, and the reason I think the piece I excerpted that from will eventually see print, is that it’s a perfect way of making something that is invisible apparent to the masses. The average person doesn’t seem to understand institutional racism, cultural appropriation, when they’re being a fool, etc. And that’s all we can expect, I suppose. Let me draw from GoT again (it’s a good metaphor for reality right now). Jon Snow is trying to convince everyone that what he’s seen– the Night King and the Whitewalkers– is coming to end everything. But people who haven’t seen the Walkers, who haven’t seen the Night King, don’t fear it and don’t really believe Jon Snow.
If you’re white, you’ve likely never seen racism, at least not in the way that people of color see it every day. If you’re a man, you’ve probably never seen misogyny in the way that women have. If you’re straight, you probably don’t know what the LGBT community faces. If you’re wealthy, you don’t know what it means to be poor. If you always feel safe, you don’t grasp the fear some people feel simply existing as they are.
Those things that you cannot see are dragons.
And if you ever actually SAW a dragon, you’d feel the warm stream of urine down your inner thigh, because dragons are terrifying.
Which is all the more reason to illuminate and slay them.
Or die trying.
Putting it in nerd vernacular might seem trivial in some ways, but let’s be honest: no one has found the way to have this conversation. Entertain my attempt and see where it gets you.